Kenya expected to start oil production from 2022

Created: Thursday, 13 August 2015 08:09

Tullow Oil has said it will start producing oil in Kenya by 2020 at the earliest. (Image source: DEMOSH/Flickr)After the decision on the Uganda-Kenya pipeline route and given its construction timeline, Kenya’s oil production is expected to start in 2022

Japan’s Toyota Tsusho, that won the contract for the pipeline, has released the design for the pipeline and it shows that the flow of first oil is expected in October 2022 at the earliest. This will come after the commissioning of the oil pipeline in the last quarter of 2020. That is also the year when Tullow Oil has said it will start producing oil in Kenya.

“Kenya and Uganda have now settled on the route, for the oil pipeline, this is what was delaying construction and could stretch the deadlines set by both governments for first oil,” said Daniel Kiptoo, the petroleum legal adviser to the cabinet secretary in Kenya’s Ministry of Energy and Petroleum.

Kenya had earlier expressed its intent to start producing oil by 2017. “As per the design by Toyota Tsusho, the route decision was to be made by early June, it was delayed to August,” said Kiptoo.

The route and design for the pipeline have been agreed upon, but financing has still not been worked out and that is likely to affect construction of the pipeline. Uganda oil investors Tullow Oil, Total and China National Offshore Oil Corporation, together with Kenya’s Tullow Oil and Africa Oil, are expected to make a final joint decision by October 2017.